@OutoftheWoodwork This was designed with hand cut signs in mind.
Circular lettering jig design
Haven't made this, but for those making hand cut circular signs, I think it would be nice to have a rotating jig to rotate the sign blank so the letter you're cutting is always in a vertical orientation to the user. See the drawing below.
Start with a base of 3/4 BB ply. As large a square about 3 inches larger than the largest size sigh you intend to make. Cut another piece into a circle3 inches smaller than the base. This leaves a bit of room for mounting supports for the router to ride on. Add a clamp to hold the workpiece and circular part in place. The circular table should ride flat on the base so when you clamp it, it doesn't tilt the table and workpiece.
You'll have to either let this jig hang over the end of your workbench or add some feet to make space for the clamp.
Rotate the table so the space for each letter is top, center. The letter will automatically be perpendicular to the center of the workpiece, which is the whole point of this jig.
For upright letters on the bottom half, use the bottom opening.
Clamp the rotating table before cutting letters.
Drill a hole or two into the top of square base and the underside of the cirular piece. Here's a rough drawing.
A refinement would be to make the H shaped support able to be set for different rotating table and workpiece height. Make the horizontal supports from 3/4 up ro 1.5 inches thick hardwood. You could cut the horizontal bar's width into strips of masonite so you can stack them to match the needed height. I would cut the masonite strips, stack all of them in place, put the H on top, then drill all pieces at one time. You need to cut enough for both top and bottom of the jig for equal height stacks. Place a threaded insert in the bottom horizontal pieces and coutersink the very top hole in the H shaped pieces so you can use a flathead bolt in the countersink to hold the stack tight, but not interfere with the router base.
@Outof the woodwork. This will compliment your band saw. This will be easiest to make on a band saw. You can use a word processor to form the circular letters, then flip and transfer to the workpiece. (I think it's called word art, but I use an old version of Word and it's a bit limited on fonts.
Start with a base of 3/4 BB ply. As large a square about 3 inches larger than the largest size sigh you intend to make. Cut another piece into a circle3 inches smaller than the base. This leaves a bit of room for mounting supports for the router to ride on. Add a clamp to hold the workpiece and circular part in place. The circular table should ride flat on the base so when you clamp it, it doesn't tilt the table and workpiece.
You'll have to either let this jig hang over the end of your workbench or add some feet to make space for the clamp.
Rotate the table so the space for each letter is top, center. The letter will automatically be perpendicular to the center of the workpiece, which is the whole point of this jig.
For upright letters on the bottom half, use the bottom opening.
Clamp the rotating table before cutting letters.
Drill a hole or two into the top of square base and the underside of the cirular piece. Here's a rough drawing.
A refinement would be to make the H shaped support able to be set for different rotating table and workpiece height. Make the horizontal supports from 3/4 up ro 1.5 inches thick hardwood. You could cut the horizontal bar's width into strips of masonite so you can stack them to match the needed height. I would cut the masonite strips, stack all of them in place, put the H on top, then drill all pieces at one time. You need to cut enough for both top and bottom of the jig for equal height stacks. Place a threaded insert in the bottom horizontal pieces and coutersink the very top hole in the H shaped pieces so you can use a flathead bolt in the countersink to hold the stack tight, but not interfere with the router base.
@Outof the woodwork. This will compliment your band saw. This will be easiest to make on a band saw. You can use a word processor to form the circular letters, then flip and transfer to the workpiece. (I think it's called word art, but I use an old version of Word and it's a bit limited on fonts.
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@OutoftheWoodwork
I redid this with a bit more image information and clearer instructions in a pdf. You can download it from dropbox.
Since I can't find any way to get rid of the first picture, I've posted the updated one behttps://www.dropbox.com/s/uzac8jr6cmm5777/Router%20Circular%20lettering%20jig.pdf?dl=0low it. It is also on the pdf
I redid this with a bit more image information and clearer instructions in a pdf. You can download it from dropbox.
Since I can't find any way to get rid of the first picture, I've posted the updated one behttps://www.dropbox.com/s/uzac8jr6cmm5777/Router%20Circular%20lettering%20jig.pdf?dl=0low it. It is also on the pdf
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